In an innovative move, around 50 children belonging to 10 districts on Saturday released a ‘Children’s Manifesto’ here asking the political parties to pay special attention to their grievances before going to 2014 General Elections.
The manifesto urged the political parties to include what they want to do for the children if they come to power in their respective election manifestos.
“We urge upon the political parties to emphasise on our rights to education, health and nutrition and protection during natural disasters as per the guidelines of the UN Convention on Rights of the Children (UN CRC). They should make promises to fulfil these demands in their manifestos,” the children said.
The manifesto was released at a special programme organised here by ‘Save the Children’ with support from European Union and UKAID. Senior political leaders, MlAs and MPs belonging to various parties attended the programme.
“This is a conscious attempt to appeal to political parties to include the child rights-related issues in their election agenda. We hope the children manifesto will make the parties more accountable towards the children,” said Save the Children’s State programme manager Sasanka Kumar Padhi.
The manifesto brought various other issues to the attention of the leaders. It wanted that vacant teacher posts in all schools be filled up soon and child labour in any form be banned soon.
Besides, the children sought political parties’ attention on child abuse and rehabilitation for HIV infected kids.
Rajya Sabha MP Baishnab Charan Parida, MlA Rajendra Chhatria, CPI’s N Narayan Reddy, BJP’s Bhrugubaxi Patra and Ashok Mishra, CPM’s Suresh Panigrahi, CPI (Ml)’s Mahendra Parida and AAP’s Nisikanta Mohapatra interacted with the children.